


The Bridge to the Other World

by Ahigheroctave



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Castles, F/M, Gen, Silence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-24
Updated: 2013-04-24
Packaged: 2017-12-09 09:12:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/772503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahigheroctave/pseuds/Ahigheroctave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day Lot 48 becomes Sullivan Street Park, she considers him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bridge to the Other World

The day Lot 48 becomes Sullivan Street Park, she considers him.

He had spent a large chunk of his free time, and money, in the passing months building a spectacular wooden castle until it had encompassed almost all of the land they had sectioned off for the playground area. There are careful steps leading up to a high tower and a tunnel running across the midsection which empties out onto a spiraling little slide and a climbing wall from which little pirates can invade and steal away royals for ransom.

Ann, who had been assigned to ensuring the park was up to date on all health code regulations, does not set her sights on it until opening day. Impressed is not a strong enough word.

She finds him sitting on a bench not far away, pretending to read a book about boats. She can see his eyes moving over the brim of the pages, sneaky as he might be. The way they watch as children scurry over each other calling back and forth as they explore their new kingdom.

She sets down next to him and engages him in his favorite activity: silence. She watches as a toddler nervously ambles over a bouncing log bridge, holding his sister’s hand. She smiles as a little girl deftly defends her wing against a plague of robbers. She catches Leslie and Ben, over by the dog park inside, her head rested against his shoulder.

“There’s a dungeon they haven’t found yet,” His voice startles her, and she almost jumps. Sometimes he’s so quiet she forgets he’s there.

She squints her eyes and tries to make it out, but she can’t. “Where?”

He points to a thick pillar alongside the slide, “It has a false bottom, if you pull alongside the panels the door will come loose.” She thinks she sees a smile twitch under his mustache, she would bet money on it.

“You really put a lot of thought into this,” She tries to keep the pride out of her voice, she knows how much he hates it when people know he cares about things. Especially government projects which take money from the taxpayer.

He doesn’t say anything in return at first, and she expects that when he does he will call her the wrong name and effectively end their conversation. “Zoey and Ivy liked to play pretend,” He says very slowly. “I guess this is my way of contributing.”

Ann swallows. Ron hasn’t talked about Diane at all since the school district reorganized and she moved away for another job, and she doesn’t quite know how to react. She knows Leslie would give him a pep talk about how there are other fish in the sea, followed by an hour long one-sided conversation about how she’d expected to go it alone before she met Ben. And April would probably find that perfect complimentary insult that would make him smile. Andy would probably go on about how hot Diane was until he realized his mistake and then hug the man awkwardly.

She suspects there’s a reason he’s talking to her instead.

“They would have loved it,” She states and goes to put her hand on his arm before recoiling it because, dude, this is Ron Swanson and better not to end what is hands down becoming the longest conversation she’s ever had with him not punctuated by blood and gore.

He nods gruffly and folds the book in his lap, marking his page with a receipt from Food and Stuff. “Zoey still wanted to be a doctor, you know,” He continues, smiling fondly. “She told Diane she wanted to cut people open and look at their guts.”

She has to bite her lip to keep from being touched by this, that they still liked her even after she’d been a horrible caretaker and left them locked in his office with a pair of scissors. “I had fun, teaching them,” She finally settles on, deciding it’s the safest option.

He makes eye contact with her and he looks a little sad as he looks away, “Me too.”

They sit alone, quietly, for a few more minutes before he clears his throat and stands up, “It’s been nice talking to you,” She prepares to be called Emma and to suck it up and smile because she can’t yell at him when he’s so clearly depressed. “Goodbye Ann.”

She sits there stunned on the bench as he walks away towards the parking lot. Later on, when Leslie comes to find her, bubbling over the top about the balloon animals and Freddie Spaghetti and how Perd gave them two thumbs up, she smiles at her sincerely and tries to find the right way to ask her if she thinks Ron would be interested in parenthood.

She can’t, so she just listens and nods instead. Sometimes silence says more.

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know why. This could make no sense whatsoever, hopefully it's lucid enough. I almost never write in present tense because it’s confusing, but this idea just came to me and it happened. :) Also, the castle playground is described after one in my hometown.


End file.
